03/01/2026

Both the first and second mass readings for today are attributed to St. John. 

I really believe that they are "by" St John but the "learned and clever" of this world have taught me to doubt even the source of the words of scripture and I know that I could not sustain any position in a discussion about biblical sources as the very limited knowledge that I have is only in English.

John tells us that  "the world" did not know Jesus. John is still living in "the world" that was the experience of the generation that had refused to accept that "The WORD had become flesh and dwelt among them" during the three years of public revelation by Jesus in Palestine.

In today's Gospel John remembers what happened when the Baptizer met Jesus. 

"The Baptist" simultaneously recognises "The Lamb of God", the only sacrificial victim that can "take away the sins of the world", "IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT" as the "BEING" of God and the INCARNATION "this is the Son of God".

Most of the  "world" that was the generation living in the same time as Jesus refused to recognise this and all the other "events" as the real-time revelations by "Emmanuel" .

I would dearly love to live righteously during the rest of the time remaining for me. I know that the events of 2000 years ago recorded in Scripture explain all that I need to know about being alive in this world in any post-Resurrection generation but I am afraid that the Sacramental Reality of "This is my, body" cannot be found in the "this worldliness" that, less than 200 years after the deaths of those who had known Jesus, had corrupted both the worldly Papal and Imperial Institutional Church.

There is nowhere in the history of "the world" known by any of the generations subsequent to the death of the Apostles and Assumption of Mary that we can be sure of the claimed presence of God except in the Scriptures and in the individuals whose lives demonstrate a complete faithfulness to those Scriptures.

I believe St John's witness to the words of the "Last of the Old Testament Prophets"; "This is the Son of God"; and can continue to strive to recognise and avoid sin by also believing his witness to Jesus', "Son of God and Son of Mary", last words;  "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother" which create a New Holy Family, a Church of Love, uttered to Mary and to him from the cross.

The only thing of value within the things of this world is that we can we can recognise the emptiness of their being and totally reject them as we live our lives focussed only on how to know, love and serve in this world to achieve the perfection that is created for each of us in the heart of "Our Father".

The only thing that even the greatest of us can retain at death is the gift that God bestows on all his children, and we all have to personally answer for the condition in which we return our Soul, the invisible source of our lives.